...belong to scanlators, s'what I think. And I'm not even going into the whole "you have no rights over it cause it's illegal anyway" thing, cause that's a pretty gray area.

Scanlation (also scanslation) is the scanning, translation and editing of comics from a foreign language into a different language. The word scanlation is a portmanteau of scan and translation.

Scans, check. Translation, check. Yep.

What we do not own however, and I'm pretty sure not one scanlator would even try to claim the rights to, is the manga/doujinshi/book itself, the concept, the story, the characters, the art, and everything in between.

"People technically aren't even allowed to scan manga/doujinshi without the express consent of the mangaka/doujinka", which is usually the case. Okaay, I get that, as some people take that as leverage to do what they want with the scans they get regardless of the scanner's wishes. Suuuure, okay you arses.

So, okay, forget the scans, and the effort put into editing them, but I reckon we get dibs on our translation, yes? That, I am certain, belongs to the translator. I may translate 何じゃコレ to "What is this shit?" whereas others may translate it to "What the hell is this?", therefore making "What is this shit?" MY translation for 何じゃコレ, though not necessarily mine alone (But then again, a one-liner isn't really a good example since we're usually talking about whole books when doing scanlations). I can also translate うんこしたい to "I love you" and you can't give a damn, 'cause it's my translation (Not saying it's right, but hey, it's mine). But I digress, point is, there's no two scanlations with the exact same translation, word for word, for the whole book. If there is, then they're either done by the same translator, or one plagiarized the other. That said, translating is laborious (Editing more so, in some cases). Especially for phrases, words or sentences that doesn't have a direct translation to the target language. Then one would have to figure out how to get that across without distorting the original idea, trying to strike a balance between fidelity and transparency to the original text. So yeah, it requires a decent amount of effort, and I reckon that at least merits some form of respect for the scanlator's wishes, right? Right!

I also do not get why some uploaders will put "Thank me" on their sites (I've noticed these are usually the ones who didn't even ask for permission to share 'em in the first place) whereas most scanlators won't even do so. Thank you for what? Unless there be some alternate dimension wherein the effort one puts into re-uploading a scanlation is greater than actually scanlating it. IDK man. And well, I guess the one thing anyone could really do to show their gratitude, at least in my opinion, is to respect what the scanlators want, whatever that may be. And we're back to that, lol.

Buhh.

And while we're on topic. I also do not get why some people think scanlating doujinshi < manga, this coming from someone who've worked on both, f'course. For one, I don't think I've ever worked on a doujinshi that has furigana, something I see in most mangas, if not all. And contrary to popular belief, not all doujinshis are made up of purely 気持いいs and ああ～んs and 行かせてくれs, some are so deep you won't even realize they were supposed to be having smexy tiemz in that panel, whuuut (haha I exaggerate, but yeah 8D). Next, some doujins are hand-written so the kanji are scribbled, and it's hard if you're not familiar with that word, y'know? Then, mangas being long doesn't count either, as there are doujins that are 100+ pages (Just remembered the Independence Sky series, which is on its 5th one already, each one having more than around 70pages; and another one I've worked on, a good 150 something pages). So where is this coming from, I wonder?